Christaller’s Central Place Theoryi

Summary: p.406 The main aim of central place theory is to explain the spatial organization of settlements and hinterlands, in particular their relative location and size. Christaller’s Theory makes the following simplifying assumptions: an isotropic (all flat), homogeneous, unbounded limitless surface

(abstract space) an evenly distributed population evenly distributed resources all consumers have a similar purchasing power and demand for

goods and services no provider of goods or services is able to earn excess profit there is only one type of transport and this would be equally easy in

all directions Transport cost is proportional to distance traveled ie, the longer the

distance traveled, the higher the transport cost Threshold is the minimum market (population or income) needed to

bring about the selling of a particular good or service. Range is the maximum distance consumers are prepared to travel to

acquire goods - at some point the cost or inconvenience will outweigh the need for the good.

Rank-Size Rule: A country’s second largest city is one half the size of the largest and so on. The distribution of settlements closely follows the rank-size rule in the USA and a handful of other countries. Primate City: According to the Primate City Rule the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the second ranking settlement. In this distribution the country’s largest city is called the primate city. The Primate City phenomena is observable in European countries and some Less Developed Countries.

Student Notes:

Rostow’s Model of Economic Development

i

Summary P.316 In 1960, the American Economic Historian, WW Rostow suggested that countries passed through five stages of economic development. Stage 1 Traditional Society The economy is dominated by subsistence activity where output is consumed by producers rather than traded. Any trade is carried out by barter where goods are exchanged directly for other goods. Agriculture is the most important industry and production is labor intensive using only limited quantities of capital. Resource allocation is determined very much by traditional methods of production. Stage 2 Transitional Stage (the preconditions for takeoff) Increased specialization generates surpluses for trading. There is an emergence of a transport infrastructure to support trade. As incomes, savings and investment grow entrepreneurs emerge. External trade also occurs concentrating on primary products. Stage 3 – Take-off Industrialization increases, with workers switching from the agriculture sector to the manufacturing sector. Growth is concentrated in a few regions of the country and in one or two manufacturing industries. The level of investment reaches over 10% of GNP. The economic transitions are accompanied by the evolution of new political and social institutions that support the industrializations. The growth is self-sustaining as investment leads to increasing incomes in turn generating more savings to finance further investment. Stage 4 Drive to Maturity The economy is diversifying into new areas. Technological innovation is providing a diverse range of investment opportunities. The economy is producing a wide range of goods and services and there is less reliance on imports. Stage 5 High Mass Consumption The economy is geared towards mass consumption. The consumer durable industries flourish. The service sector becomes increasingly dominant. According to Rostow development requires substantial investment in capital. For the economies of LDCs to grow the right conditions for such investment would have to be created. If aid is given or foreign direct investment occurs at stage 3 the economy needs to have reached stage 2. If the stage 2 has been reached then injections of investment may lead to rapid growth

Immanuel Wallerstien’s Core-Periphery Modeli

Summary: p.322 The world can be perceived as a core / periphery dichotomy where core countries are characterized by high levels of development, a capacity at innovation and a convergence of trade flows. The core has a level of dominance over the periphery which is reflected in trade and transportation. Accessibility is higher within the elements of the core than within the periphery. Most of high level economic activities and innovations are located at the core, with the periphery subjugated to those processes at various levels. This pattern was particularly prevalent during the colonial era where the development of transport systems in the developing world mainly favored the accessibility of core countries to the resources and markets of the periphery, a situation that endured until the 1960s and 1970s. The semi-periphery has a higher level of autonomy and has been the object of significant processes of economic development (China, Brazil, Malaysia, etc.). Concomitantly, the accessibility of the semi-periphery improved, permitting the exploitation of its comparative advantages in labor and resources. Recent changes in globalization, particularly industrial growth in developing countries, is challenging this representation.

Student Notes:

Alfred Weber’s Model of Industrial Location

Summary:

Economic Geographer German 1868 – 1958 Set of assumptions in order to minimize the complexities of the real world

• Most raw materials are localized, i.e., found only in certain locations and the location(s) is (are) known --e.g., energy • Labor is found only in certain location (Not mobile), fixed wage, unlimited quantity • Markets are fixed known locations • The cost of transporting raw material, energy, and finished product is a direct function of weight and distance: the greater the distance, the greater the cost; the greater the weight the greater the cost. perfect economic competition: there is no monopoly for any producer; many sellers and buyers. • Isotropic plain (physically, politically and culturally uniform plain) • Industrialists are economic operators: interested in minimizing cost and maximizing profit • Some raw materials are ubiquitous (found everywhere, e.g., water) he recognized general factors such as transportation costs and special factors such as perish ability of food decided that it was transportation cost that was the critical determinant of regional industrial location

Student Notes:

Bid-rent Theory

Summary:

Bid rent theory is a geographical economic theory that refers to how the price and demand on real estate changes as the distance towards the Central Business District (CBD) increases. It states that different land users will compete with one another for land close to the city centre. This is based upon the idea that retail establishments wish to maximize their profitability, so they are much more willing to pay more money for land close to the CBD and less for land further away from this area. This theory is based upon the reasoning that the more accessible an area, the more profitable.

Student Notes:

Unit Six: Industrialization and Economic Development

Acid deposition The accumulation of acids or acidic compounds on the surface of the Earth, in lakes or streams, or on objects or vegetation near the Earth's surface, as a result of their separation from the atmosphere

Acid precipitation Precipitation abnormally high in sulfuric and nitric acid content that is caused by atmospheric pollutants.

Active solar energy systems

A system designed to convert solar radiation into usable energy for space, water heating, or other uses. It requires a mechanical device, usually a pump or fan, to collect the sun's energy.

Agglomeration A concentration of services clustered together; the lower the cost of production (firms have competing multiple suppliers, greater specialization and division of labor result) and the greater the market that the firm can sell into.

Air pollution The addition of harmful chemicals to the atmosphere. The most serious air pollution results from the burning of fossil fuels, especially in internal-combustion engines.

Biodiversity The number and variety of organisms found within a specified geographic region.

Biomass fuel living and recently dead biological material that can be used as fuel or for industrial production.

Break-of-bulk point The point at which a cargo is unloaded and broken up into smaller units prior to delivery, minimizing transport costs. This frequently happens at waterfront sites where imports are often processed to cut costs.

Breeder reactor A nuclear reactor that produces as well as consumes fissionable material, especially one that produces more fissionable material than it consumes

Bulk-gaining industry making something that gains volume or weight during production

Bulk-reducing industry making something that looses volume or weight during production

Chlorofluorocarbon any of several volatile, inert, saturated compounds of carbon, fluorine, chlorine, and hydrogen: used as refrigerants, foam-blowing agents, solvents, and, formerly, as aerosol propellants until scientists became concerned about depletion of the atmospheric ozone layer.

Comparative Advantage

the ability of an individual or group to carry out an economic activity, such as production, at a lower cost and more efficiently than another entity

Conservation the careful utilization of a natural resource in order to prevent depletion

Consumer goods goods that are ready for consumption in satisfaction of human wants, as clothing or food, and are not utilized in any further production

Cottage industry the production, for sale, of goods at home, as the making of handicrafts by rural families.

Dependency Theory the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former

Development A process of economic growth, in which a country tries to improve their level of material wealth through the diffusion and realization of resources.

Ecotourism Tourism involving travel to areas of natural or ecological interest, typically under the guidance of a naturalist, for the purpose of observing wildlife and learning about the environment.

Energy Consumption The level of demand a given country puts on resources available in the world to crate energy.

Enfranchisement to grant a franchise to; admit to citizenship, esp. to the right of voting.

Entrepot a commercial center where goods are received for distribution, transshipment, or repackaging

Fission Also called nuclear fission. Physics. the splitting of the nucleus of an atom into nuclei of lighter atoms, accompanied by the release of energy

Footloose industry Industry that can be sited in any of a number of places, often because transport costs are unimportant. Such industries may have raw materials that are commonly available, for example a bakery

Fordist the system formulated in Henry Ford's automotive factories, in which workers work on a production line, performing specialized tasks repetitively

Foreign direct investment

investing in United States businesses by foreign citizens (often involves stock ownership of the business)

Fossil fuel any combustible organic material, as oil, coal, or natural gas, derived from the remains of former life.

Four Asian Tigers The term Four Asian Tigers or Asian Tigers refers to the highly industrialized economies of

Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. These regions were noted for maintaining exceptionally high growth rates and rapid industrialization between the early 1960s and 1990s. In the 21st century, all four tigers became advanced economies and high-income economies.

Fusion the process by which multiple nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus resulting in a release of immense energy but without radioactive waste.

Gender empowerment index

is a measure of inequalities between men's and women's opportunities in a country. It combines inequalities in three areas: political participation and decision making, economic participation and decision making, and power over economic resources.

Geothermal energy energy obtained from within the earth, originating in its core; also, energy produced by extracting the earth's internal heat and turning it into other energy (mechanical or electric)

Global warming an increase in the earth's average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result from the greenhouse effect

Greenhouse effect an atmospheric heating phenomenon, caused by short-wave solar radiation being readily transmitted inward through the earth's atmosphere but longer-wavelength heat radiation less readily transmitted outward, owing to its absorption by atmospheric carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, and other gases; thus, the rising level of carbon dioxide is viewed with concern.

Gross Domestic Product

The total market value of all the goods and services produced within the borders of a nation during a specified period.

Gross National Product

the total monetary value of all final goods and services produced by a country during one year in side and outside of its borders.

Half life the time required for one half the atoms of a given amount of a radioactive substance to disintegrate

Human development index

The Human Development Index (HDI) is an index combining normalized measures of life expectancy, literacy, educational attainment, and GDP per capita for countries worldwide

Hydroelectric power form of energy generated by the conversion of free-falling water to electricity; the generation of electricity by using the motive power of water

Industrial Location Theory

A model of industrial location proposed by A. Weber (1909, trans. 1929), which assumes that industrialists choose a least-cost location for the development of new industry

Industrial Revolution the totality of the changes in economic and social organization that began about 1760 in England and later in other countries, characterized chiefly by the replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines, as the power loom and the steam engine, and by the concentration of industry in large establishments

Infanticide the practice of killing newborn infants

Infrastructure the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area, as transportation and communication systems, power plants, and schools.

The ‘New International division of labor’

The phenomena of the last 40 years of LDCs being centers for manufacturing goods for market in MDCs and MDCs creating wealth through investment in LDCs.

International Monetary Fund

an international organization that promotes the stabilization of the world's currencies and maintains a monetary pool from which member nations can draw in order to correct a deficit in their balance of payments: a specialized agency of the United Nations.

Just in time delivery an inventory strategy that reduces in-process inventory, waste, and eliminates the costs of warehousing inventory.

Labor intensive industry

Labor Intensive Industry refers to that industry which requires substantial amount of human labor to produce the industrial products

Less developed country

Countries with a poorly developed industrial base and poor indicators of social and economic development.

Literacy rate Percentage of a given population that can read and write.

Manufacturing The process of creating a product for sale.

Maquiladora An assembly plant in Mexico, especially one along the border between the United States and Mexico, to which foreign materials and parts are shipped and from which the finished product is returned to the original market.

Market Area The space in which a company intends to sell their product.

More developed country

Countries with a well developed industrial base and high indicators of social and economic development.

NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement reduces trade barriers between the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Nonrenewable energy Energy sources which cannot be recreated once expended.

OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries; an organization in which global exporters of

petroleum which cooperate to maintain appropriate levels of petroleum to meet demand and stabilize the price of that commodity.

Outsourcing to obtain goods or services from an outside source (particularly from MDC to LDCs)

Ozone a form of oxygen, O3, with a peculiar odor suggesting that of weak chlorine, produced when an electric spark or ultraviolet light is passed through air or oxygen. It is found in the atmosphere in minute quantities, esp. after a thunderstorm, is a powerful oxidizing agent, and is thus biologically corrosive. In the upper atmosphere, it absorbs ultraviolet rays, thereby preventing them from reaching the surface of the earth.

Passive solar energy systems

Passive solar technologies are means of using sunlight for useful energy without use of active mechanical systems

Petroleum A thick, flammable, yellow-to-black mixture of gaseous, liquid, and solid hydrocarbons that occurs naturally beneath the Earth's surface

Post-Fordist the dominant system of economic production, consumption and associated socio-economic phenomena, in most industrialized countries since the late 20th century

Primary sector The manufacturing industries that aggregate, pack, package, purify or process the raw materials close to the primary producers include agriculture, agribusiness, fishing, forestry and all mining and quarrying industries.

Productivity A measure of efficiency of the production of goods and services having exchange value.

Purchasing power parity

An adjustment of the value of currency in terms of the goods they can buy.

Radioactivity the phenomenon, exhibited by and being a property of certain elements, of spontaneously emitting radiation resulting from changes in the nuclei of atoms of the element.

Raw materials A raw material is something that is acted upon or used by organisms, or by human labor or industry, for use as a building material to create some product or structure

Recycling to treat or process (used or waste materials) so as to make suitable for reuse

Right-to-work state prohibit agreements between trade unions and employers making membership or payment of union dues or "fees" a condition of employment, either before or after hiring

Secondary sector This sector generally takes the output of the primary sector and manufactures finished goods or where they are suitable for use by other businesses, for export, or sale to domestic consumers

Self-sufficiency Self-sufficiency refers to the state of not requiring any outside aid, support, or interaction, for survival;

Site factors Availability of land, labor, and capital.

Situation factors The associated costs of shipping materials to and from a factory.

Structural adjustment program

economic policies which countries must follow in order to qualify for new World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans and help them make debt repayments on the older debts owed to commercial banks, governments and the World Bank.

Tertiary sector Tertiary sector of economy involves the provision of services to businesses as well as final consumers. Services may involve the transport, distribution and sale of goods from producer to a consumer as may happen in wholesaling and retailing, or may involve the provision of a service, such as in pest control or entertainment

Textile any cloth or goods produced by weaving, knitting, or felting

Threshold/range The distance a good can travel from the point of production or distribution and still be useful.

Trading bloc A trade bloc is a large free trade area formed by one or more tax, tariff and trade agreements. Typically trade pacts that define such a bloc specify formal adjudication bodies

Value added refers to the additional value of a commodity over the cost of commodities used to produce it from the previous stage of production

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides financial and technical assistance] to developing countries for development programs (e.g. bridges, roads, schools, etc.) with the stated goal of reducing poverty

World Systems Theory Immanuel Wallerstein, a leading advocate of the approach, uses the same terminology. He characterizes the world system as a set of mechanisms which redistributes resources from the periphery to the core. In his terminology, the core is the developed, industrialized, democratic part of the world, and the periphery is the underdeveloped, raw materials-exporting, poor part of the world; the market being the means by which the core exploits the periphery.

World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments

Halford MacKinder’s Heartland Theory

Summary: Mackinder summarized his theory as:

"Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island;

who rules the World-Island controls the world." Any power which controlled the World-Island would control well over 50% of the world's resources. The Heartland's size and central position made it the key to controlling the World-Island

Student Notes:

Mahan Sea Power Theory

Summary: Mahan identified three critical elements of seapower: (1) weapons of war, primarily battleships and their supply bases; (2) a near monopoly of seaborne commerce from which to draw wealth, manpower, and supplies; and (3) a string of colonies to support both of the above. His theories, however, rested on two serious fallacies. First, his overreliance upon the notion of concentrating forces falsely denied the importance of coastal defense, and undervalued commerce raiding. These assumptions forced strategists to search for a decisive, war winning battle, often in vain. Second, he overstated the strategic benefits of controlling seaborne commerce and colonies. Whereas in peacetime these components of empire frequently contributed to wealth and consequently to long‐ term strength, in war they often proved to be liabilities. Mahan's timeless principles, as enacted along the lines of late nineteenth century navalism, had the effect of turning America's strategic vision of itself on its side; instead of remaining an unassailable continental power with maritime reach, it became an overstretched maritime power with global vulnerabilities.

Student Notes:

Nicholas Spykman Rimland Theory

Summary: N.J. Spykman could be considered as a disciple and critic of both geostrategists Alfred Mahan, of the United States Navy, and Halford Mackinder, the British geographer. Spykman states that historically battles have pitted Britain and rimland allies against Russia and its rimland allies, or Britain and Russia together against a dominating rimland power. In other words, the Eurasian struggle was not the sea powers containing the heartland, but the prevention of any power from ruling the rimland. Spykman recalls Mackinder's famous dictum,

Who controls eastern Europe rules

the Heartland;

Who controls the Heartland rules

the World Island; and

Who rules the World Island rules

the World,

but disagrees, refashioning it thus:

Who controls the rimland rules

Eurasia;

Who rules Eurasia controls the

destinies of the world. Therefore, British, Russian, and U.S. power would play the key roles in controlling the European littoral, and thereby, the essential power relations of the world.

Student Notes:

Unit Four: Political Organization of Space Annexation To incorporate (territory) into an existing political unit such as a country, state, county, or city

Balance of power a distribution and opposition of forces among nations such that no single nation is strong enough to assert its will or dominate all the others.

Boundary (ethnographic/cultural)

Boundaries that are imposed by people to delineate places including: An Antecedent boundary that was created before the present day cultural landscape developed, i.e., Malaysia/Indonesia on the island of Borneo. A Geometric boundary that follow straight lines without regard to physical or cultural landscape. A Relict boundary that ceases to exist, however the imprint of the boundary still remains on the cultural landscape, i.e., North/South Vietnam. A Religious boundary delineated by where the majority of inhabitants practice a given religion. A Language boundary delineated by where the majority of inhabitants speak a given language. A Maritime boundary which follows a county’s coast line 12 miles into the ocean.

Boundary (natural/physical)

Natural boundaries which existed before the area was populated.

Buffer state A State lying between potentially hostile larger nations.

Capitol A building or complex of buildings in which a state legislature meets

Centrifugal Force Social or economic forces that divide people within the state (Opposite of Centripetal force).

Centripetal Force Social or economic forces that unify people behind the state (Opposite of Centrifugal force).

City-state a sovereign state consisting of an autonomous city with its dependencies (Precursor to the Nation-State.)

Colonialism the control or governing influence of a nation over a dependent country, territory, or people.

Colony a group of people who leave their native country to form in a new land a settlement subject to, or connected with, the parent nation

Confederation a league or alliance of states more or less permanently united for common purposes

Devolution the transfer of power or authority from a central government to a local or autonomous government

Domino theory a theory that if one country is taken over by an expansionist, esp. Communist, neighbor, party, or the like, the nearby nations will be taken over one after another

Enfranchisement to grant a franchise to; admit to citizenship, esp. to the right of voting.

European Union an association of European nations formed in 1993 for the purpose of achieving political and economic integration

Exclusive Economic Zone

A maritime area in which a country claims specific economic rights.

Federal state Government that is characterized by power sharing between National and Local governments.

Forward Capital A symbolic relocation of a capital city to a geographically or demographically peripheral location may be for either economic or strategic reasons EG; The Ming Emperors moved their capital to Beijing from more central Nanjing as to better supervise the border with the Mongols and Manchus

Frontier That part of a country which fronts or faces another country or an unsettled region; the marches; the border, confine, or extreme part of a country, bordering on another country; the border of the settled and cultivated part of a country; as, the frontier of civilization.

Geopolitics the study or the application of the influence of political and economic geography on the politics, national power, foreign policy, etc., of a state.

Gerrymandering To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party in elections.

Hierarchy of Political Administrative Units

(Largest to Smallest) 1) Empire 2) Nation-State 3) Province 4) County

Landlocked state A state that has no border with the sea.

Microstate An independent country that is very small in area and population.

NGO (Non Government Organization)

an organization that is not part of the local or state or federal government

Reapportionment The redistribution of representation in a legislative body.

Sovereignty Supreme and independent power or authority in government as possessed or claimed by a state or community including the use of lethal force.

State An area organized into a political unit with sovereignty over internal and external affairs.

State (Compact) Rounded countries with a geographically central Capitol.

State (Elongated) States which are long and thin, they usually suffer from poor internal communication.

State (Fragmented) A state divided into several discontinuous pieces of territory.

State (Perforated) A state that is completely encircled by another state.

State (Prorupted) A compact state with a large projecting extension usually with a strategic purpose.

Superpower an extremely powerful nation, esp. one capable of influencing international events and the acts and policies of less powerful nations.

Supra-nationalism State support of institutions outside or beyond the authority of one national government, as a project or policy that is planned and controlled by a group of nations.

Supra-national Organizations

o N.A.T.O. North Atlantic Treaty Organization :An Alliance of European Nations, The United States, and potential membership by other proximal Westernized countries.

o E.U. European Union: European countries united in a common economic market, with a common currency, and with a power sharing policy making governing body.

o A.C.S. Association of Caribbean States o U.N. United Nations: World Parliament with non binding governing authority. The

Security Council represents the will of the greatest military powers and therefore has the ability to shape the behavior of lesser states when the global political will is present.

o O.P.E.C. Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Terrorism The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, a government and/or a population for political purposes.

UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) The United Nationals law which establishes 12 mile maritime boundaries. The Median Line Principle applies when coast lines are within 12 miles of each other, the boarder is exactly ½ way between the two coastlines.

Unitary state A unitary state is a state whose three organs of state are governed constitutionally as one single unit, with one constitutionally created legislature, there is no power sharing with lesser jurisdictions.

United Nations an international organization, with headquarters in New York City, formed to promote international peace, security, and cooperation under the terms of the charter signed by 51 founding countries in San Francisco in 1945.

Warren Thompson’s Demographic Transition Modeli

Summary: p.60 Demographic Transition is a model used to represent the process of explaining the transformation of countries from high birth rates and high death rates to low birth rates and low death rates as part of the economic development of a country from a pre-industrial to an industrialized economy. It is based on an interpretation begun in 1929 by the American demographer Warren Thompson of prior observed changes, or transitions, in birth and death rates in industrialized societies over the past two hundred years and has 4 definitive stages: o In stage one, pre-industrial society, death rates and birth rates are high

and roughly in balance. o In stage two, that of a developing country, the death rates drop rapidly

due to improvements in food supply and sanitation, which increase life spans and reduce disease. These changes usually come about due to improvements in farming techniques, access to technology, basic healthcare, and education. Without a corresponding fall in birth rates this produces an imbalance, and the countries in this stage experience a large increase in population.

o In stage three, birth rates fall due to access to contraception, increases in wages, urbanization, a reduction in subsistence agriculture, an increase in the status and education of women, a reduction in the value of children's work, an increase in parental investment in the education of children and other social changes. Population growth begins to level off.

o During stage four there are both low birth rates and low death rates. Birth rates may drop to well below replacement level as has happened in countries like Germany, Italy, and Japan, leading to a shrinking population, a threat to many industries that rely on population growth. As the large group born during stage two ages, it creates an economic burden on the shrinking working population. Death rates may remain consistently low or increase slightly due to increases in lifestyle diseases due to low exercise levels and high obesity and an aging population in developed countries.

Student Notes:

E.G. Ravenstein Laws of Migrationi

Summary: P.82-86

o Most migrants move only a short distance. o There is a process of absorption, whereby people

immediately surrounding a rapidly growing town move into it and the gaps they leave are filled by migrants from more distant areas, and so on until the attractive force [pull factors] is spent.

o There is a process of dispersion, which is the inverse of absorption.

o Each migration flow produces a compensating counter-flow.

o Long-distance migrants go to one of the great centers of commerce and industry.

o Natives of towns are less migratory than those from rural areas.

o Females are more migratory than males. o Economic factors are the main cause of migration

Student Notes:

Epidemiological Transition Model

Summary: p.72

The theory of demographic transition was first formulated by the demographer Warren Thomsen, in 1929, who described how societies originally with a high mortality and high birth rate, over time transform into decreasing mortality, followed by decreasing birth rate his Theory of the Epidemiology of Population Change: 1) Mortality and middle life time are fundamental for the dynamics of population growth. 2) During the transition, a shift occurs in mortality and disease patterns whereby infections, specifically among children and younger individuals, gradually are replaced by degenerative and man-made diseases in adults, towards dominance of the latter in the elderly. As Kierkegaard might have formulated it: there are three stages on the way of our world: a) the plagues and hunger period, b) the period with decreasing importance of pandemics, and c) the period with increasing importance of degenerative and man-made diseases. 3) During the epidemiological transition, the most pronounced changes in health and disease patterns take place among children's and mothers, which result in a decrease in mortality followed by declining birth rate. 4) Epidemiological transition in health and diseases is therefore closely associated with demographic and socio-economic transition, and with changes in life-style and modernization. 5) Variations in the speed by which these changes occur, can be demonstrated in three basic models: a) the classical Western model, b) the delayed model, and c) an accelerated model from e.g. Japan after World War II up to 1970.

Unit Two: Population and Migration Population

Activity space The space we live in from day to day; that part of action space with which an individual interacts on a daily basis

Age distribution Proportions of a give population quantified by age.

AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is the final and most serious stage of HIV disease, which causes severe damage to the immune system and is transmitted through bodily fluid to body fluid contact.

Bubonic (Black) Plague

a serious, sometimes fatal, infection with the bacterial toxin Yersinia pestis, transmitted by fleas from infected rodents and characterized by high fever, weakness, and the formation of buboes, esp. in the groin and armpits.

Carrying Capacity The maximum, equilibrium number of organisms of a particular species that can be supported indefinitely in a given environment.

Census an official enumeration of the population, with details as to age, sex, occupation, etc.

Cholera An acute infectious disease of the small intestine, caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae and characterized by profuse watery diarrhea, vomiting, muscle cramps, severe dehydration, and depletion of electrolytes

Cohort a group of persons sharing a particular statistical or demographic characteristic: the cohort of all children born in 1980.

Contraceptives A device, drug, or chemical agent that prevents conception

Crude birth rate / Natality

childbirths per 1,000 people per year

Crude death rate the number of deaths per 1,000 per year

Demographic equation population growth and change in terms of two essential components – natural increase and net migration

Demographic momentum

the phenomenon of continued population increase despite reduced reproductive rates.

Demographic regions Regions delineated on the basis of demographic characteristics.

Demographic Transition Model

Describes population change over four phases of industrialization.

Demography the science of vital and social statistics, as of the births, deaths, diseases, marriages, etc., of populations

Dependency ratio The percentage of the population that doesn’t work to that which does.

Doubling time The amount of time it takes a population to double.

Ecumene The inhabited (or inhabitable) area of the world.

Epidemiologic transition model

The major causes of death in each stage of Demographic Transition.

Epidemiology outbreaks of disease that affect large numbers of people.

Gendered space refers to physical space that is associated with a particular gender because of the activities that occur in the space.

Industrial revolution Industrial Revolution, term usually applied to the social and economic changes that mark the transition from a stable agricultural and commercial society to a modern industrial society relying on complex machinery rather than tools. It is used historically to refer primarily to the period in British history from the middle of the 18th cent. to the middle of the 19th cent.

Infant mortality rate The ratio of the number of deaths in the first year of life to the number of live births occurring in the same population during the same period of time.

Life expectancy the probable number of years remaining in the life of an individual or class of persons determined statistically, affected by such factors as heredity, physical condition, nutrition, and occupation.

Maladaptation incomplete, inadequate, or faulty adaptation.

Malthus theory A return to subsistence-level conditions as a result of population growth outpacing agricultural production.

Medical revolution The diffusion of Medical Technology to LDCs

Mortality the relative frequency of deaths in a specific population; death rate.

Natural increase rate In demographics, the rate of natural increase (RNI) is the crude birth rate minus the crude death rate of a population (excluding migration).

Neo-Malthusians Geographers and Demographers such as Paul Ehrlich, Robert Kaplan, and Thomas Fraser Homer-Dixon who have broadened the Malthusian theory to include other vital resources such as fuel, arable land, and other resources including food.

Overpopulation When a country can no longer support its population because It has reached its carrying capacity.

Pandemic An epidemic which occurs over a wide area of space.

Population clusters / concentrations

The major populated ares of the globe include; East Asia, South Asia, South East Asia, and Europe. Two smaller clusters include South East Canada to New Port News, VA and West to Chicago (2 percent of world population) and the South facing Atlantic coast of Africa (2 percent of world population.)

Population pyramid A graph with demonstrates the age and sex distribution of a given area’s population.

Sex ratio The ratio of males to females in a population

Standard of Living the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people, and the way these goods and services are distributed within a population

Total fertility rate The total average births per women through her child bearing years.

Zero population growth The limiting of population increase to the number of live births needed to replace the existing and/or when the CDR and CBR are approximately equal.

Migration Activity space The area in which an individual can travel to within the span of one day; area of personal

sustained human activity.

Brain drain Phenomena of the emigration of the most intellectually gifted and vocationally qualified citizens of LDCs to MDCs.

Counter-urbanization Migration from cities out into rural areas.

Distance Decay Contact between areas and a persons ability to travel there decay as distance increases.

Emigration Permanent migration out of a native country.

Floodplain a nearly flat plain along the course of a stream or river that is naturally subject to flooding

Guest workers Individuals on temporary visas subject to withdrawal upon termination of temporary employment.

Immigration Permanent migration into a non native country.

Internal migration Permanent movement within a country.

International migration Permanent migration from one country to another country.

Interregional migration Internal migration from one region to another region.

Intervening obstacle A physical or cultural barrier to the movement of individuals between places EG; a mountain or an immigration policy.

Intraregional migration Permanent migration within the same region.

Migration The long term movement of a person from one political jurisdiction to another.

Migration (Chain / Step)

The phenomena of people relocating to areas where their family, friends, or other of similar ethnicity have already relocated.

Migration (forced) When individuals are removed to another place without any choice.

Migration (voluntary) When individuals elect to move to another place.

Migration (Circulation) Residents of LDCs who travel to MDCs for training and temporary economic opportunities who return to their native countries.

Mobility The means and abilities of individuals and groups to relocate.

Net migration the balance between in-migration to an area and out-migration from the area over a specified period of time (e.g., 10 years) on the area's population.

Periodic Movement Recurring migration that is dependent on a cyclical factor.

Pull factor Social, environmental, or economic factors which cause individuals to migrate to a new place.

Push factor Social, environmental, or economic factors which cause individuals to migrate from and old place.

Quotas Numerical limits on immigration or emigration.

Refugees a person who flees for refuge or safety, esp. to a foreign country, as in time of political upheaval, war, etc.

Space-time prism The distance between places in terms of time one travels.

Transhumance An occupation requires following the migration of livestock also known as pastoralism or nomadism.

Undocumented immigrants / Illegal Aliens

Migrants who enter a country by extra legal means and generally earn money through employment which is not taxed.

Von Thunen’s Agricultural Modeli

Summary: p.350

The main aim of von Thunen’s analysis was to show how and why agricultural land use varies with distance from a market. Assumptions: o The city is located centrally within an "Isolated State." o The Isolated State is surrounded by wilderness. o The land is completely flat and has no rivers or mountains. o Soil quality and climate are consistent. o Farmers in the Isolated State transport their own goods to market via

oxcart, across land, directly to the central city. There are no roads. o Farmers behave rationally to maximize profits

The model generated four concentric rings of agricultural activity. o Ring 1: Dairying and intensive farming lies closest to the city.

Since vegetables, fruit, milk and other dairy products must get to market quickly; they would be produced close to the city.

o Ring 2: Here timber and firewood would be produced for fuel and building materials in the second ring. Wood was a very important fuel for heating and cooking and is very heavy and difficult to transport so it is located close to the city.

o Ring 3: Consists of extensive fields crops such as grain. Since grains last longer than dairy products and are much lighter than fuel, reducing transport costs, they can be located further from the city.

o Ring 4: Ranching is located in the final ring. Animals can be raised far from the city because they are self-transporting. Animals can walk to the central city for sale or for butchering.

o Beyond the fourth ring lies the wilderness, which is too great a distance from the central city for any type of agricultural product.

Unit Five: Agricultural and Rural Land Use Agribusiness The businesses collectively associated with the production, processing, and distribution of

agricultural products.

Agriculture the science, art, or occupation concerned with cultivating land, raising crops, and feeding, breeding, and raising livestock; farming.

Agricultural Revolution (First)

The transition from hunting and gathering communities and bands, to agriculture and settlement

Agricultural Revolution (Second)

The introduction of technology to agriculture resulted in increased yields for commercial sale.

Agricultural Revolution (Third)

The introduction of biological engineering to increase yields for commercial sale AND subsistence farmers

Aquaculture the cultivation of aquatic animals and plants, esp. fish, shellfish, and seaweed, in natural or controlled marine or freshwater environments; underwater agriculture.

Biotechnology The use of a living organism to solve an engineering problem or perform an industrial task.

Chaff the husks of grains and grasses that are separated during threshing.

Combine a harvesting machine for cutting and threshing grain in the field

Commercial agriculture Agriculture which exists solely for the purpose of making profit; characterized by highly mechanized operation in vast swaths of land.

Crop Cultivated plants or agricultural produce, such as grain, vegetables, or fruit, considered as a group: Wheat is a common crop.

Crop rotation / Shifting Agriculture

The system of varying successive crops in a definite order on the same ground, esp. to avoid depleting the soil and to control weeds, diseases, and pests.

Collective farm A farm, or a number of farms organized as a unit, worked by a community under the supervision of the state.

Domestication (Animal)

A population of animals must have their behavior, life cycle, or physiology systemically altered as a result of being under human control for many generations.

Domestication (Plant) A domesticated plant, strictly defined, is one whose reproductive success depends on human intervention; in addition their plant is systematically controlled to meet a human need.

Desertification the rapid depletion of plant life and the loss of topsoil at desert boundaries and in semiarid regions, usually caused by a combination of drought and the overexploitation of grasses and other vegetation by people.

Dairying The business of owning and operating a dairy or a dairy farm.

Double cropping to raise two consecutive crops on the same land within a single growing season.

Grain a small, hard seed, esp. the seed of a food plant such as wheat, corn, rye, oats, rice, or millet.

Green revolution The rapid diffusion of more productive agricultural techniques during the 1970’s and 1980’s mainly involving higher-yield seeds and expanded use of fertilizers.

Forestry the science of planting and taking care of trees and forests

Horticulture the cultivation of a garden, orchard, or nursery; the cultivation of flowers, fruits, vegetables, or ornamental plants.

Hull the husk, shell, or outer covering of a seed or fruit.

Hunting and Gathering the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild

Intensive agriculture an agricultural production system characterized by the high inputs of capital, labor, or heavy usage of technologies such as pesticides and chemical fertilizers relative to land area

Intertillage Planting between rows of crop plants already prepared for the growth of crops.

Livestock the horses, cattle, sheep, and other useful animals kept or raised on a farm or ranch.

Milk shed a region producing milk for a specific community: the

Mediterranean Agriculture

Found in countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. It has developed as a result of the warm wet winters and hot dry summers in this area. Cereal crops are sown in the autumn and harvested in late spring. Trees and vines are grown and crops from them, such as grapes and olives, are collected in the summer after ripening. In addition, goats and sheep are often kept to provide extra income

Narco-agriculture The cultivation of Narcotics for the black market; this usually occurs in areas out of reach of the state or in states were Narcotics cultivation is not illegal.

Paddy a rice field

Pampas The Pampas of South America are a grassland biome. They are flat, fertile plains that covers an area of 300,000 sq. miles or 777,000 square kilometers, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Andes Mountains.

Pasture an area covered with grass or other plants used or suitable for the grazing of livestock; grassland

Plantation A large estate or farm usually dedicated to one crop, often raised by resident workers

Prime agricultural land Agriculture, is land that has the best combination of physical and chemical characteristics for producing food, feed, forage, fiber, and oilseed crops and is also available for these uses

Ranching An extensive farm, especially in the western United States, on which large herds of cattle, sheep, or horses are raised

Reaper a machine for cutting standing grain; reaping machine

Ridge tillage a reduced tillage system that is somewhere between no-till and conventional tillage. Crops are planted on ridges that stay in the same location year after

Sawah A flooded field for rice cultivation or artificial paddy.

Seed agriculture Reproduction of plants through seeds.

Slash and burn agriculture/ Swidden

Slashing existing vegetation and burning it in order to create fertilizer.

Spring wheat Spring wheat is planted in the spring and harvested in late summer or early fall.

Subsistence agriculture

Producing food for personal or community consumption

Sustainable agriculture Using agricultural practices which conserve the fertility of the land and ensure

Thresh To separate the grain or seeds from (a cereal plant or the like) by some mechanical means,

as by beating with a flail

Truck farming A farm producing vegetables for the market

Von Thünen’s Model Early in the 19th century Johann Heinrich von Thünen (1783-1850) developed a model of land use that showed how market processes could determine how land in different locations would be used.

Wet rice In wet rice agriculture, seeds are sown in small seedbeds; the seedlings are then transplanted one by one to prepared paddy fields. While the plants are maturing, they must be kept irrigated, but as the rice ripens the fields are drained. The rice is then harvested and threshed by hand. Wet rice agriculture is labor-intensive,

Winter wheat which normally accounts for 70 to 80 percent of U.S. production, is sown in the fall and harvested in the spring or summer

The Gravity Model

Summary:

p.408

It was not until the first half of the 19th Century that the theory of gravity was applied to human interaction. At that time, H. C. Carey (6) theorized "Gravitation is here, as everywhere, in the direct ratio of the mass and the inverse of distance." In the above example allowing that there are no intervening obstacles and that travel is of equal cost the greatest distance will have the least spatial interaction.

Unit Seven: Cities and Urban Land Use

Basic industries Industries exported mainly outside a settlement and constitute that communities economic base. These industries employ a large percentage of a community’s workforce.

Basic/public services Firemen, Police, Waterworks, Electrical grid maintenance, transportation Maintenance teachers, and other services acquired as a public good required for the operation of a city

Business services They service other business and include financial services, professional services, transportation, communication, and utilities service

Central business district

A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city

Central place theory A theory which examines the relationship between settlements of different sizes relative to the goods and services they provide and their market areas.

Commuter zone An exterior ring in the concentric zone model where people reside and commute to the CBD.

Concentric zone model The Concentric ring model also known as the Burgess model was the first to explain distribution of social groups within urban areas.

Consolidation statutory combination of two or more corporations or political jurisdictions

Council of Government A legislative body within a metropolitan area responsible for its governance, for example the D.C. city council and its mayor

Density gradient is a variation in density of a feature over an area

Economic base An industry or agglomeration of industries which employ the majority of residents or provide the majority of taxes for a jurisdiction.

Edge city an area on the outskirts of a city having a high density of office buildings, shopping malls, hotels for example Tyson’s Corner.

Employment structure The division of all employment into four employment sectors, primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary jobs.

Enclosure movement Division or consolidation of communal lands in Western Europe into the carefully delineated and individually owned farm plots

Ethnic neighborhood An enclave of a larger city in which individuals of a particular ethnicity have settled together.

Favela a shantytown in or near a city, esp. in Brazil; slum area

Federation the formation of a political unity, with a central government, by a number of separate states, each of which retains control of its own internal affairs.

Filtering When houses are subdivided and occupied by successive waves of lower-income people which results in broken communities, the abandonment of property, and declining populations.

Gateway city A city with an Airport or seaport that serves as the entry point to a country by being the primary arrival and departure point

Gentrification the buying and renovation of houses and stores in deteriorated urban neighborhoods by upper- or middle-income families or individuals, thus improving property values but often displacing low-income families and small businesses.

Gravity model A model which predicts that the best location for a service is directly related to the number of people in the area and inversely related to the distance that people must travel for it.

Greenbelt an area of woods, parks, or open land surrounding a community

Heterogeneous An area with variation in type among a shared feature; IE the ethnic makeup of an urban population with be diverse and hence heterogeneous.

Hinterland Rural land adjacent to a population center which produces materials for consumption for that population center.

Homogenous An area with no variation in type among a shared feature; IE the ethnic makeup ethnic neighbor hood inside of an urban population with be the same and hence homogeneous.

Indigenous city A city that is harmonized with its environment even as it shaped that environment and gave focus and significance to elements of the environment that were held to be important to its occupants.

Information services system of persons, data records and activities that process the data and information in an organization, and it includes the organization's manual and automated processes.

Inner city the central area of a major city or metropolis typically characterized by poverty a

Invasion and succession

A model of change used in urban ecology to represent changing land use within a neighborhood. For example, a few in-migrants who are content with multiple dwelling invade a neighborhood to the discontent of the original residents who will eventually leave. Succession is the end of the process when the area has changed completely.

Lateral commuting the journey from one residential location to another as the suburbanization of industry develops.

Megacities A megacity is defined by the United Nations as a metropolitan area with a total population of more than 10 million people.

Megalopolis/conurbation

A large conurbation, where two or more large cities have sprawled outward to meet, forming something larger than a metropolis; a megacity

Metropolitian area A metropolitan area is a large population (contains a core urban area of 50,000 or more population) center consisting of a large metropolis and its adjacent zone of influence, or of more than one closely adjoining neighboring central cities and their zone of influence(Washington D.C. and its MD and VA suburbs)

Micropolitan statistical area

A micropolitan Statistical Area contains a core urban area of 10,000 or more population and adjacent jurisdictions with a high degree of social and economic integration (Charles, St. Mary’s, and Calvert County could be the Southern Maryland micropolitan area.)

Multiple nuclei model An ecological model put forth by Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman similar industries with

common land-use and financial requirements are established near each other. These groupings influence their immediate neighborhood.

Non-basic industries Industry that sells its products within the community; it does not bring money into the community.

Optimal location The most advantageous location to provide a service or manufacture a good.

Peak land value intersection

The point in a CBD, often, but not always, at a road intersection, where land values are at a maximum.

Peripheral model A city surrounded by growing suburbs that combine residential and business areas and are tied together by a beltway or ring road.

Personal services A business whose principal activity is the performance of personal services. The fields of health, law, engineering, architecture, accounting, actuarial sciences, performing arts and consulting are personal service activities

Poverty the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor; indigence.

Primate city A primate city is the leading city in its country or region, disproportionately larger than any others in the urban hierarchy

Primate city rule When a country has one city that is more important than any other city in a country; many of these are found in LDCs and in some European countries.

Public housing housing owned or operated by a government and usually offered at low rent to the needy

Public transportation any form of transportation that charge set fares, run fixed routes, and are available to the public such as buses, subways, ferries, and trains

Rank size rule If one ranks the population size of cities in a given country or in the entire world and calculates the natural logarithm of the rank and of the city population, the resulting graph will show a remarkable log-linear pattern. This is the rank-size distribution

Redlining To refuse home mortgages or home insurance to areas or neighborhoods deemed poor financial risks

Restrictive covenants Land deeds contain clauses against selling the land to people of certain ethnicities.

Rush Hour Hours of the day in which most individuals are commuting too or from work which results in the greatest traffic congestion.

Sector model A Model proposed in 1939 by economist Homer Hoyt. It is a model of urban land use and modified the concentric zone model of city development. The benefits of the application of this model include the fact it allows for an outward progression of growth

Sector, (economic) Primary

involve getting raw materials from the natural environment e.g. Mining, farming and fishing.

Sector, (economic) Quaternary

Jobs that involve research and development e.g. Internet Technology

Sector, (economic) Secondary

involve making things (manufacturing) e.g. making cars and steel.

Sector, (economic) Tertiary

involve providing a service e.g. teaching and nursing

Segregation The legal division of a population by race in terms of where they are allowed to receive public and pirate services and where they can reside.

Settlement Where people live.

Slum a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security

Smart growth anti-sprawl development that is environmentally, fiscally, and economically smart and includes land-use planning, mixed use development, and transportation efficiency

Sprawl (Urban) Haphazard growth or extension outward, especially that resulting from real estate development on the outskirts of a city: urban sprawl

Squatter settlement An area of usually unauthorized, makeshift housing, generally at the edge of a Third World city,

Street Pattern (dendritic)

the typical suburb, with its looping street pattern and dead-end cul-de-sacs, ‘is laid out so that it can't grow’

Street Pattern (grid) is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid.

Suburbanization The establishment of residential communities on the outskirts of a city. In the United States, many suburbs were created after World War II, during a period of tremendous growth in population and industry. Suburban dwellers typically work in the cities but raise their families in a less-congested, safer, and more relaxed atmosphere. Especially in the United States, suburbanization often is associated with the sprawl of population

Tenement Also called tenement house. a run-down and often overcrowded apartment house, esp. in a poor section of a large city

Underclass a social stratum consisting of impoverished persons with very low social status

Underemployment employed at a job that does not fully use one's skills or abilities (Example a person with a

Bachelor’s degree working at McDonald’s restaurant)

Urban renewal the rehabilitation of city areas by renovating or replacing dilapidated buildings with new housing, public buildings, parks, roadways, industrial areas, etc., often in accordance with comprehensive plans.

Urbanization the social process whereby cities grow and societies become more urban

World city A global city (also called world city) is a city deemed to be an important node point in the global economic system

Zoning ordinance A law which requires how land will be used in urban planning in advance of development in various parts of the world, including North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

The Cultural Landscape

Summary:

A cultural landscape is fashioned from a natural landscape by a culture group. Culture is the agent; the natural area is the medium. The cultural landscape the result together’. Most cultural landscapes fit into this category: they are living landscapes, changing as the culture; climate and natural surroundings change within and around them. The character of the landscape thus reflects the values of the people who have shaped it, and who continue to live in it. The culture itself is the shaping force. Landscape is a cultural expression that does not happen by chance but is created informally or by. List of World Heritage Sites

Unit Three: Cultural Patterns and Processes Ethnicity

Apartheid The name for the legal segregation of races in the country of South Africa.

Acculturation The process of adopting the cultural traits or social patterns of another group.

Adaptive strategy A classification of societies based on correlations between their economies and their social features including five adaptive strategies; foraging, horticulture, agriculture, pastoralism, and industrialism.

Barrio A chiefly Spanish-speaking community or neighborhood in a U.S. city.

Balkanization / Shatterbelt

Division of a place or country into several small political units, often unfriendly to one another

Blockbusting A practice used by real estate agents and developers in the United States to encourage white property owners to sell their homes by giving the impression that minority groups (such as African Americans) were moving into their previously racially segregated neighborhood

Brown V Board of Education of Topeka Kansas

U.S. Supreme Court ruling (1952) that held segregated schools in the several states are unconstitutional in violation of the 14th Amendment, overturning Plessy v. Furgeson

Ethnic Cleansing When a more powerful ethnic groups removes a less powerful ethnic group from a place by means of forced relocation or murder in order to create their own nation-state.

Ethnic Conflict Fighting between ethnic groups over control of territory or resources.

Ethnic Competition Fighting between ethnic groups over control of the state.

Ethnic neighborhood Enclaves of homogenous ethnic groups inside a larger city.

Ethnicity Identity with or membership in a particular racial, national, or cultural group and observance of that group's customs, beliefs, and language

Ethnocentrism The belief that one’s own ethnic values and identity is in part superior.

Ghetto a section of a city, esp. a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group, often as a result of social or economic restrictions, pressures, or hardships. 2) (formerly, in most European countries) a section of a city in which all Jews were required to live.

Irredenta A population or territory culturally or historically significant to one’s nation that is subject to foreign control.

Irredentism The recovery of territory or population culturally or historically related to one's nation but now subject to a foreign government.

Middle passage Ocean corridor between African and North and South American where Europeans forced the migration 10 million enslaved Africans from 1500-1850 AD.

Multi-national states States which contain more than one nation for example the United Kingdom has four major nationalities; English, Scottish, and Welsh.

Multi-state nations / Stateless nations

Nations which are present in multiple states for example; Kurds in Northern Iraq, South Eastern Turkey, North West Iran, Northern Armenia, and Eastern Azerbaijan.

Nation A people who share common customs, origins, history, and frequently language;

Nationalism Feeling of intense loyalty to A people who share common customs, origins, history, and frequently language.

Nation-state A country in which an entire nation is located within the boarders of one state.

Plural Society A medley of ethnicities who mix but do not combine; a stable plural society is characterized by economic interdependence and ecological specialization.

Plessy v. Ferguson U.S. Supreme Court ruling (1896) held that segregated facilities for blacks and whites are constitutional under the doctrine of separate but equal, which held for close to 60 years.

Race Physical characteristics such as body shape, skin color, hair texture, eye color

Racism The belief that one’s own racial makeup and identity is superior to others to the point that all others are inferior.

Racist One who advocates or believes in racism.

Segregation The policy or practice of separating people of different races, classes, or ethnic groups, as in schools, housing, and public or commercial facilities, especially as a form of discrimination.

Self-determination The principle that a population has the right to choose and exercise control over their own government.

Sharecropper a tenant farmer who pays as rent a share of the crop.

Social distance the extent to which individuals or groups are removed from or excluded from participating in one another's lives.

Triangular trade a pattern of colonial commerce in which slaves were bought on the African Gold Coast with New England rum and then traded in the West Indies for sugar or molasses, which was brought back to New England to be manufactured into rum.

White Flight The retreat of Anglo Americans from communities that ethnic minorities, primarily African Americans relocate to.

Culture Custom A repetitive act of a group performed to the extent that It becomes a characteristic.

Folk culture Traditions practiced primarily by isolated, rural, homogenous groups.

Folk Housing Housing styles that very depending on environmental conditions and available materials.

Folk Songs Songs tell a story to convey information about daily activities such as farming, daily life, mysterious events, and culturally significant benchmarks in human life.

Folklore Oral and written stories that articulate the customs and traditions of a culture, sub culture, or group.

Habit A repetitive act of an individual that an individual performs.

Imperialism the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies

Media / Mass Communication

the means of communication such as radio, television, newspapers, internet, and magazines that reach or influence people widely.

Pollution the introduction of harmful substances or products into the environment

Popular culture The practices of large, heterogeneous societies that share many characteristics or habits. Popular culture is created, marketed, and diffused to the masses, usually with the purpose of creating profit.

Rural Of or pertaining to, characteristic of the country, country life, or country people.

Suburban Of or pertaining to suburbs; inhabiting, or being in, the suburbs of a city.

Taboo proscribed by society as improper or unacceptable

Uniform landscapes Popular Culture and Urban Sprawl has lead to a repetitive sameness in the American Cultural Landscape.

Urban Characteristic of the city or city life.

Language Dialect is a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers.

Ebonics a nonstandard form of American English characteristically spoken by African Americans in the United States

Extinct language a provincial, rural, or socially distinct variety of a language that differs from the standard language

Franglias A pidgin dialect that mixes French and English.

Ideograms A written symbol that expresses an idea.

Indo-European Languages

The World’s Largest Language Family.

Isogloss a line on a map marking the limits of an area within which a feature of speech occurs, as the use of a particular word or pronunciation.

Isolated language A language isolate is a language with no clear relationship to or affinity with other languages such as Basque in North Eastern Spain.

Language a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural tradition.

Language branch A collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed several thousand years ago. Differences are not as extensive or old as with language families.

Language family A collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history.

Language group A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary.

Lingua franca The language of choice to conduct commerce.

Literary A register that is used in literary writing; Classical Latin was the literary register of Latin, as opposed to the Vulgar Latin spoken across the Roman Empire.

Monolingual One language spoken in a state or nation.

Multilingual Multiple languages spoken in a state or nation.

Official language An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other territory

Pidgin any simplified or broken form of a language, esp. when used for communication between speakers of different languages.

Spanglish A pidgin dialect mixing Spanish and English

Standard language The most accepted dialect for mass communication

Vulgar Latin The precursor to all Romance Languages.

Religion Animism The oldest human religion in which people worship animals and forces of nature as spirits or

deities.

Autonomous religion Characterized by self-sufficient denominations of believers with little interaction between religious communities.

Branch A fundamental division within a religion.

Buddhism a religion, originated in India by Buddha (Gautama) and later spreading to China, Burma, Japan, Tibet, and parts of southeast Asia, holding that life is full of suffering caused by desire and that the way to end this suffering is through enlightenment that enables one to halt the endless sequence of births and deaths to which one is otherwise subject.

Caste an endogamous and hereditary social group limited to persons of the same rank, occupation, economic position, etc., and having mores distinguishing it from other such groups.

Christianity a monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior

Confucianism the system of ethics, education, and statesmanship taught by Confucius and his disciples, stressing love for humanity, ancestor worship, reverence for parents, and harmony in thought and conduct.

Cosmogony a theory or story of the origin and development of the universe, the solar system, or the earth-moon system

Crusade any of the military expeditions undertaken by the Christians of Europe in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Muslims.

Cult a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.

Denomination A division of a branch of a religion.

Diocese The district or churches under the jurisdiction of a bishop

Ethnic religion Religions characteristic of an ethnicity; adherents are born into these religions.

Enclave any small, distinct area or group enclosed or isolated within a larger one

Fundamentalism A usually religious movement or point of view characterized by a return to fundamental principles, by rigid adherence to those principles, and often by intolerance of other views and opposition to secularism.

Feng Shui The Chinese art or practice of positioning objects, especially graves, buildings, and furniture, based on a belief in patterns of yin and yang and the flow of chi that have positive and negative effects.

Geomancy divination by means of signs connected with the earth (as points taken at random or the arrangement of particles thrown down at random or from the configuration of a region and its relation to another)

Hadj A pilgrimage to Mecca during Dhu'l Hijja, made as an objective of the religious life of a Muslim

Hierarchical religion A religion in which a central authority exercises a high degree of control

Hinduism the common religion of India, based upon the religion of the original Aryan settlers as expounded and evolved in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gita.

Islam the religious faith of Muslims, based on the words and religious system founded by the prophet Muhammad and taught by the Koran, the basic principle of which is absolute submission to a unique and personal god, Allah.

Islam (Sharia law) The code of law based on the Koran

Islam (Shiite) A member of the branch of Islam that regards Ali and his descendants as the legitimate successors to Muhammad and rejects the first three caliphs.

Islam (Sunni) a member of the branch of Islam that accepts the first four caliphs as rightful successors to Muhammad

Jainism a dualistic religion founded in the 6th century b.c. as a revolt against current Hinduism and emphasizing the perfectibility of human nature and liberation of the soul, esp. through asceticism and nonviolence toward all living creatures.

Jihad An individual's striving for spiritual self-perfection; any vigorous, emotional crusade for an idea or principle.

Landscapes of the dead

The way funerary monuments and burial practices impact the administration, use, and appearance of space.

Missionary a person sent by a church into an area to carry on evangelism or other activities, as educational or hospital work.

Monotheism the doctrine or belief that there is only one God

Mormonism An American religion based on an ancient prophet believed to have compiled a sacred history of the Americas, which were translated and published by Joseph Smith as the Book of Mormon in 1830

Pagan One of a people or community observing a polytheistic religion, as the ancient Romans and

Greeks.

Pilgrimage a journey, esp. a long one, made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion:

Polytheism The worship of or belief in more than one god

Reincarnation the belief that the soul, upon death of the body, comes back to earth in another body or form

Religion a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

Sacred Space Holy places of a religion set aside for purely spiritual use.

Sect Is a group that is smaller than a denomination.

Secularism the view that public education and other matters of civil policy should be conducted without the introduction of a religious element.

Shamanism The type of religion which once prevailed among all the Ural-Altaic peoples (Tungusic, Mongol, and Turkish), and which still survives in various parts of Northern Asia. The Shaman, or wizard priest, deals with good as well as with evil spirits, especially the good spirits of ancestors

Shintoism the native religion of Japan, primarily a system of nature and ancestor worship.

Sikhism monotheistic religion founded in northern India in the 16th century by the guru Nanak. Sikhism rejects caste distinctions, idolatry, and asceticism and is characterized by belief in a cycle of reincarnation from which humans can free themselves by living righteous lives as active members of society.

Taoism the philosophical system evolved by Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, advocating a life of complete simplicity and naturalness and of noninterference with the course of natural events, in order to attain a happy existence in harmony with the Tao.

Theocracy a form of government in which God or a deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler, the God's or deity's laws being interpreted by the ecclesiastical authorities.

Universalizing Religion A religion that admits members of any culture as long as they practice the tenants of that religion.

Zoroastrianism an Iranian religion, founded circa 600 b.c. by Zoroaster, the principal beliefs of which are in the existence of a supreme deity, Ahura Mazda, and in a cosmic struggle between a spirit of good, Spenta Mainyu, and a spirit of evil, Angra Mainyu.